


munuð

by Dylanobrienisbatman



Series: Chopped Challenge Fics [4]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Deception, F/F, Group Sex, Human Sacrifice, Minor Character Death, Sex Magic, The magician’s AU, secret place
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-02
Updated: 2019-11-02
Packaged: 2021-01-16 17:21:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21274886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dylanobrienisbatman/pseuds/Dylanobrienisbatman
Summary: When Echo and Emori finally find a group of Hedges willing to offer them a place after the Library takes control, to say they were a little sceptical would be an understatement. They play the roll, but something feels off. When Emori discovers a dark secret, it takes every bit of their wits to get out of it with their lives.Submission for Chopped round 3!1st place for most unique pairing1st place for best smut2nd place for best use of the sex pollen trope





	munuð

**Author's Note:**

> This follows the loose plot of ‘Gimmie Shelter’, with a bit of the 'wonkru' concept mixed in for some fun weirdness. 
> 
> The title is an old Norse word for love, which I found on a website so if it’s not accurate... sorry.

She remembered how it felt, when magic had been yanked from the universe by the old gods. She had felt it, sucked from under her skin, from beneath her fingernails, out of her lungs, suffocating her and bleeding her out into the air around her before evaporating entirely. It had taken only seconds, but the feeling had lingered. The feeling of emptiness, like her skin was drying out and her bones were becoming brittle by the day, as if magic had held her very cells in place.

She remembered the frantic panic afterwards too. 

Echo was a hedge witch in New York, but she had never been much of a group kind of girl. She liked to exist on the fringes of society, finding people or groups to move with for a while before falling into something new. She had started as a spy for a safe house in Brooklyn, infiltrating other safe houses and learning their spells before bringing them back to her group, but she had left their group when a safe house they sent her too blew up, killing all the magicians inside, just two days after she left. 

She wasn’t one to believe in coincidences. 

Ever since, she’d been a floater. She’d latch onto this house or that, learning magic in exchange for old spells she’d learned or helped with particularly complex magic. Her reputation as a particularly powerful magician proceeded her, but unfortunately so did her past... profession. Which meant she was never welcome for very long. 

Her life as a wanderer is how she found Emori. 

Emori wasn’t a hedge witch, not in the way Echo had been. She’d never belonged to any house or attended any school, she existed only on the fray. She had been born with a deformed hand, a mark of extreme magical ability, but many hedge groups believed in old suspicions that claimed these types of deformities were the mark of a curse, bringing poor fortune to any who she touched. 

She said she preferred it that way, but Echo knew better. 

That’s what Echo told people too. 

The day magic was shut off, their world as wandering Magicians came crashing down. 

With no magic to learn spells or practice, hedges locked themselves down. They closed their doors to outsiders, and an already lingering air of distrust grew into a monstrous thing beyond their control. 

They had hoped that when magic came back, things would go back to normal, but when the library took over, and the rationing began, it was almost worse. 

The ambient magic in the air was scant, and without a hedge, they had no hope of really getting to use any of it. Hedges were able to hoard magic away into batteries when the ambient got to high enough levels, and share their rationed stores during brownouts, but wandering magicians had no way of channeling that much power on their own. 

That’s how they ended up in this situation. 

This stupid, dangerous, ridiculous situation. 

—— 

They stood, shoulder to shoulder, in front of a large red metal door to a warehouse in Queens, which was said to be the location of a very powerful all female hedge group. They had heard all sorts of insane stories about these magicians, but the stories contradicted each other so much they had no idea what was true and what wasn’t. 

It didn’t matter though. They’d met with an envoy, a sweet girl named Maya, and they had been offered a chance to meet with the leader of their hedge.

A place to stay, magic in huge quantities, and new spells to practice... they were willing to put up with pretty much anything at this point. It had been almost a year and half of nothing. Angry magicians peering through peep holes distrustfully before slamming it closed. Furious magicians snatching their papers and books away the second they saw Emori’s hand, or realised who Echo actually was. 

This hedge group was their last hope. 

They laced their fingers together, squeezing tight, before Echo knocked three times, the door shaking loudly beneath her fist. 

The door lifted, loud shaking as the door rose high, rolling into the ceiling, revealing what appeared to be an old abandoned garage on the side of the warehouse.

In the middle of the room stood two women. A tall, thin brunette, all sharp cheekbone and alabaster skin with intricate braids in her long hair, and, on her left, short white hair in pretty waves contrasted against dark brown skin, softer features on her face, her brown eyes cautious and guarded. 

“You must be Echo and Emori.” The taller girl said, her voice sharper and direct. “I’m Octavia. This is Gaia.” 

Echo and Emori nodded in greeting, Echo raising a hand to half wave in their direction. 

“We’ve heard many stories about you.” Octavia said, accusingly. 

“And we’ve heard quite a few about you.” Echo said sharply. 

“And yet here you are.”

“You extended the invitation.” 

Octavia’s eyes flashed, and Emori reached over to grab her wrist, cautioning her against her rising temper. 

“We were told you had many spells to share.”

“We keep them somewhere safe. Once we know we’re allowed to stay for good, we will happily share them with you.” Emori piped up, her voice steady and at ease. She had a way of manipulating her surroundings that Echo found... well... sexy felt like the best word, but she shoved that down. Emori wasn’t interested in her like that. 

“That seems fair.” The soft voice came from Gaia, whose decision to speak seemed to take Octavia by surprise. “Situations like this are delicate, especially these days. Secrets are natural.” Something in the way she looked at Octavia mare Echo think there was something more to their dynamic, and to Gaia in general, than they were being shown. 

Gaia tugged Octavia down to her level, and turned her back on them, whispering furiously. 

After a moment, they returned their attention, and beckoned them forward. 

They followed them through a door at the back of the garage, and the sight they were met with earned Octavia and Gaia a gasp from Echo, and an impressed grunt from Emori. 

The room on the other side was incredible. 

Lofty ceilings stretched 30 feet in the air, and the whole room was bright, huge warehouse windows panelling the wall in front of them. The ground floor was covered in couches and tables and cousins and chairs, scattered in a way that felt haphazard and also intentional. Hundreds of plants, from full grown pine trees to little succulents, were scattered about, and a small stream seemed to run across the floor, branching off into every direction to fill small pools, to supply drinking fountains, and to water the plants. As they looked up the space got even grander. About 10 feet up, the right side of the room had level full of bookshelves and big cushy chairs, and the other had a wall closing off what they imagined were bedrooms. Even higher still, a level above that had tables and a kitchen, where close to 25 witches were all chattering loudly over lunch. 

Echo and Emori snapped their jaw shut after a moment, and Gaia smiled. 

“Welcome.” She whispered in Echo’s ear, and the two of them wandered off. 

A pretty blonde girl walked up only a moment later. 

“I’m Harper,” she said brightly, “let me show you around.” 

The tour lasted almost an hour, reveal a lot more well hidden spaces than a cursory glance could show, and by the time they were shown to a small room, with two twin beds, they were exhausted somehow. 

The fell into the beds, which were much softer than they appeared, and were asleep in minutes. 

——

The next few weeks were difficult. They tiptoed around the other magicians, keeping mostly to themselves, and wondering when the other shoe would drop. They were given low level access to their magical library, and almost no access to any spells. 

They had been there almost a month when their trial run ended.

“Ready to prove yourself?” Octavia asked after walking into their room early one morning. 

The phrase made Echo nervous. 

“How?” She asked.

“There are two ways. One is significantly more fun than the other, but it’s your choice.”

“What are the choices?” 

“You can take a truth potion, and submit yourself to questioning from the entire hedge.” This option did not sound very fun, or appealing. The image of the burnt ruins of the house she’d led her people too flashed in her mind. 

“Or?”

“Or... you can join us in an offering to Freya.” 

“An offering?” Emori said, untrusting. 

“We... offer... her our love. And devotion.” Octavia said, but clearly the looks on their faces showed they needed more explanation. “We all consume the lotus flower after it has been dipped in a sex potion, and we... show her our devotion.” 

An orgy. That’s what she meant. 

“When we do this, she blesses us.”

So that nonsense they had heard about this hedge being followers of the old gods wasn’t so nonsense after all. 

“She helps us find ways around the library’s rationing, that’s why the ambient in our safe house is so much higher than everywhere else.” Octavia said, very matter of fact. “When new magicians enter our fold, we must make a new offering. You are not obligated to join, but if you do not, and you refuse the truth serum, you must leave.” 

“An offering of sex magic...” Emori said, pensive, as if the idea was fascinating rather than straight up weird. 

“When do we have to decide?” Echo asked quickly. 

“The full moon is when the offering is the most effective, so you have three days to decide. I’ll let you discuss your options.” 

The door closed, and Echo cast a muffling spell around them before they spoke. 

“An ORGY, Em? How on earth does that prove our loyalty?” 

“A sex magic orgy done in offering to an old god, Echo. That’s a different kind of magic, it requires... vulnerability. Devotion. If the offering doesn’t work, they’ll know it’s because of us.” She still seemed thoughtful, like she was weighing her options. 

“I don’t know if I trust it. Getting involved with magicians who follow the old gods doesn’t feel like a good idea.” 

“We don’t have much choice, seeing as you don’t like my idea.” 

Echo scoffed. Emori had been trying to convince her to start their own safe house. They had a huge stockpile of spells and magical items and books, and they could welcome the wanderers. But Echo didn’t trust it. Neither of them were ever welcomed into any other group, what would make this different. She wasn’t keen on getting robbed for all their worth because she opened her doors to strangers. 

“I’m not doing the truth serum.” Echo said defiantly. 

“So sex magic orgy it is then.” Emori said, and Echo felt her stomach flutter at the idea of Emori, all blissed out on sex magic, but she shoved that back down where it belonged, and rolled her eyes in begrudging expectance. 

They de-muffled the door, and started their day.

If Echo was a little on edge, well... you try being chill when you had to join a sex magic orgy with your best friend who you were in love with. 

——

The morning of the full moon came faster than Echo’s sweaty palms and racing heart would like, but it came, and she barely slept the night before. 

All day, she helped the other women build the offering alter, which would be at the centre of the... offering. It was absolutely overflowing with huge bouquets of all different kinds of flowers, teetering towers of fruits and sweets on shiny golden platters, and long smoking incense sticks poked out of what seemed like every possible nook and cranny, filling the room with the smell of jasmine and lilacs. The floor around the alter had been covered in soft cushions and satin pillows, all covered in shimmering glitter, which, when Echo asked about it, she was told was a part of the sex magic potion. A powder made from the flowers they were to eat, mixed with a dust that was spelled with a sex magic spell, sprinkled over the place where the offering would take place. It wouldn’t do anything until they ate the flowers, they promised, but she steered clear anyway. 

The day felt years long, but the sun started to set early on the crisp November day, and Echo felt her heart rate pick up even more. 

The hedges gathered around the offering alter, in soft linen robes and nothing but their underthings. Echo was nervous. Not about the orgy itself. Sex magic was nothing new, and she liked girls. But Emori was standing next to her, her soft brown hair falling over her shoulders in pretty, loose waves, and she smelled like her rose conditioner, and Echo’s pulse was always a little high when Emori was around anyway. The idea that the sex magic would heighten those feelings had her stomach in knots. What if, when they ate the flowers, Emori wanted nothing to do with her. All the magic did was heighten pre-existing attraction, according to Harper, who seemed to be the resident potion expert, it didn’t create attraction where there want any. What if Emori felt nothing for her? 

She felt bile rising in her throat at the very thought. 

She looked across the circle at a pretty girl with bright green eyes, named Lexa, who was holding the hand of the girl on her left, Costia, playing with her fingers gently. She glanced over at Roma, who was eyeing Octavia almost hungrily. Raven was leaning back against the post behind her, her eyes glancing over everyone quickly, before settling on a pretty blonde named Bree, who smiled shyly under her gaze.

She swallowed hard. 

This was more than just sex magic, she reminded herself. She had to commit. They needed to stay here, and this was the way. 

She bounced on the balls of her feet in anticipation... and from the nerves. 

Gaia was giving some sacred ritual speech, but the rushing of blood in Echo’s ears drowned out the sound, and all she could focus on was the platter of pretty pink and white flowers being passed around. 

She took one from the plate when it reached her, passing to Emori, and when their eyes met, something in Emori’s gaze made her shiver, even in the warm room, and calmed her nerves somehow. 

The last girl picked up her flower, and set the platter down on the alter, and the room was suddenly ripe with tension. She felt her skin get warm under the gaze of someone to her right and she turned, meeting Gaia’s gaze. She lifted her flower, almost in a toast, and Echo fit the same, earning a soft smile as a reward. Octavia stepped into the circle, and smiled. 

“To Freya, we present this humble offering.” She said, and lifted the flower to her lips. Each girl did the same, and she felt Emori grab her wrist and squeeze as they placed the flowers on their tongues. 

At first they tasted almost sickly sweet, but it quickly changed into a delightful floral flavour, like jasmine tea with a just a touch too much sugar. 

The effects came quickly. The room got warmer almost instantly, and the air seemed to fill with swirling colours, bright pinks and shimmering gold, lilac purples and navy blues, all around her. She felt it in her body too. Her skin felt hot and her mind felt fuzzy, and the only real emotions she could feel were love, and lust. 

Every girl she looked at had pupils as wide as her irises, and seemed jittery with want. 

Octavia was the first to act, which seemed to be what they were waiting for. She removed her robe, revealing soft white cotton underwear, and stepped out of the middle of the circle, dropping the robe onto the ground. 

Gaia followed, and the next, and the next, until she and Emori were the last left dressed. 

The wanting eyes of 25 girls bored into their skin, and, as if as one, they shed their robes. 

That seemed to be the trigger. Roma stepped aggressively into the circle and pulled Octavia into her, kissing down her neck and under her chin, and the room reacted in a wave. 

She felt it, in her own skin, an almost uncontrollable urge to slide her fingers under the band of Emori’s red panties, across her soft stomach, and up the side of her thighs. 

She felt herself moving, like she had no control over her own limbs, but she redirected, reaching out and finding Gaia’s outstretched hand, pulling her into her, sliding her hands up the warm soft skin of her back, and kissing over her shoulders softly. 

The group descended into the pillows on the floor, a cloud of glittering dust rising into the air, floating there as if it was levitating there. The effects of the magic only grew, and her want became almost uncontrollable, and she pulled Gaia into her, kissing her soundly. 

Her mouth was soft, and she tasted like the flower, sweet and delicate. 

Under garments were shed in a hurry, and the air was filled with soft moans and sharp gasps as the magic took control. Echo slid her hand down Gaia’s soft stomach, finding her hot and wet. She groaned, earning her a soft giggle. She started slow, gentle circles over her clit while they kissed heavily, until Gaia was shaking under her touch, and she slid a finger into her warm centre, pulling it in and out slowly, maintaining her slow ministrations with her thumb until Gaia bit into her shoulder and she sped up, adding another finger and speeding up the pace of her thumb until Gaia was quivering and gasping for breath. She mouthed over Gaia’s neck and shoulder until she slowed, and was met with a giddy smile. Gaia started to kiss down her stomach to reciprocate, but the magic seemed to sense the insincerity. Gaia was beautiful, and her soft whimpering sounds had Echo throbbing between her thighs, but the magic had other plans. Commitment. Vulnerability. That’s what this was really about, beyond sex. 

Gaia seemed to see it. She smiled, kissing over Echo’s chest as she came back up, meeting her mouth with fervour. They kissed for a moment, before Gaia spoke softly against her lips. 

“If you want to stay, you have to be vulnerable. Who do you want most?” She whispered, her thigh now pressing between Echo’s legs, a maddening combination of pressure and no movement. She bucked her hips, needy, but Gaia pulled back, giggling. In the space to her left, she spotted Emori, her face buried between Raven’s thighs, her own hips writhing on the ground as Raven bucked wildly against her. The sight made Echo’s breath catch in her throat. 

“Oh, I see.” Gaia whispered, tracing maddening patterns over Echo’s lower belly. “You must.” She said again, before lifting herself off of Echo’s naked body, and sliding up to Maya, kissing her neck while Fox kissed her between her legs. 

Echo sat up, watching around her. The girls were all well under the influence, the glitter showering over them as they writhed and moaned against each other. She watched Emori as she finished Raven off, and Raven reached down to help her. She stopped almost as suddenly as Gaia had, and soft whispers Echo couldn’t hear ended when Emori glanced her way. 

Raven giggled, turning to find Harper’s hands reaching for her from under Bree, going willingly into the group. 

Echo and Emori looked nervously at each other, but the magic seemed to disagree with their hesitance. Emori crawled over to her, never breaking eye contact. 

“What did Raven say?” Echo whispered, when a Emori was barely a breath away. 

“What happened to Gaia?” Emori asked as a response. 

Echo gulped, and Emori just smiled. 

“Are you okay?”

“I just... I want you.” She whispered, almost embarrassed. 

“We are under the influence of-“

“No. Not just now. I mean I’m sure the magic is amplifying it, but... not just right now.” 

Emori m, to her relief, just smiled brighter, and leaned in, kissing her gently. 

It was like the whole world lit on fire around them. 

Once the kiss started, it was beyond the power of either of them to stop it. The magic had finally found its truth, the vulnerability it had been seeking, and it took control. 

Emori pushed her into the floor, kissing over her neck and her shoulder, threading her fingers into Echo’s hair at the nape of her neck to pull her head back, exposing her neck to Emori’s fervent kisses. She kissed down her chest, over her breasts, and down her stomach, finding her hot, pulsing centre with her delicate fingers. Echo felt herself gasp at the first graze of her fingertips, like an out of body experience. She yanked Emori back up, and kissed her again, heavily. She licked into her mouth, opening her teeth to her and earning a nip on her bottom lip. They kissed for a while, roaming hands and soft sounds filling the space between them. She pulled at Emori’s hips, trying to pull her up over her mouth, but emori shook her head. 

“No no, let me.” She whispered, breathy and needy against the underside of her jaw. 

“I want to taste you.” She heard herself growl, and she felt Emori shiver. 

“Okay.” The response was almost hesitant, and Echo felt herself wanting to take it back, worries she’d pushed to far, but Emori kissed her again, licking against the roof of her mouth and sliding a hand down to gently circle over her clit, meeting her thrusts with her hand until Echo was gasping and writhing, capturing every noise with her mouth, kissing her until Echo couldn’t kiss back, until Echo was just gasping and clinging to Emori’s skin for dear life as she rode over the waves of her climax. Emori giggled into her shoulder as she came down, quivering through the aftershocks. 

When she finally came all the way down, she felt different. Like the effect of the magic had begun to wear off, but the feeling of want lingered. 

Which likely had more to do with Emori’s soft, naked body still pressed against her, her hands still working slowly over her skin. The magic had gotten what it wanted from her, release at the hands of the one she wanted most, but what was left was just want. Emori’s skin against hers, her smell wrapping around her, the feeling of her lips pressing into her shoulder, she just wanted. 

She pulled emori into a kiss and yanked her up, up, up, until her cunt was above her lips, and she pressed gentle kisses into the soft insides of her lovers thighs. 

She pulled delicately at Emori’s hips, lowering her down to lick across her soft cunt, the taste of her mingling with the smell, and the feeling of her soft thighs under Echo’s hands, surrounding her in Emori. She set herself to work, drawing patterns with her tongue until she found one that made Emori jump, and she kept it up, slowing down and speeding up to edge her just a little, until she was whimpering above her. When she felt like Emori had had enough, she returned to the fastest pace,and Emori came crashing down around her, her legs trembling, her fingers digging into Echo’s forearms to hold steady. Echo licked at her gently, easing her down from her high until she was melting, sliding herself down and on top of Echos body, kissing the taste of herself out of her mouth.

They lay there, kissing soundly for a while, until the soft noises of the other girls subsided, and the room was quiet. The glitter still lingered in the air as they all began to dress, and fingers were still light and free, grazing over sensitive skin and delicate hickeys as they helped each other dress.

Everyone moved to the showers, where a few girls continued the fun, kissing under the hot water, their noises echoing off the walls, mingling with the giggles and the chatter and the splashing of the water on tile. Echo and Emori lingered close, fingertips grazing each other’s bare skin, pressing soft kisses against the nape of the others neck while hands were busy washing hair and tracing rib cages.

They found their way back to their little room, and the sight of the two separate beds somehow made Emori burst into laughter.

She laughed until she couldn’t stand, pulling echo down with her into a pile on the floor. Through her giggles Echo could hear fragments. Something about loving her for ages, and how silly they had been, and at the idea that they had spent years together without ever realising sent Echo into giggles too.

They finally pulled themselves together, and pushed their two twins beds into one, curling into each other, and falling asleep with Echo’s lips pressed against Emori’s shoulder.

——

The next morning at breakfast, Octavia, who was sporting a rather large lovebite on her clavicle, plopped down at the table.

“You’re in. Freya accepted the offering.” She said brightly, reaching over and grabbing a strawberry from Echo’s plate.

“Awesome.” Emori said into her cup of coffee.

“Now it’s your turn.”

“Our turn for what?”

“We showed you ours, now you have to show us yours.”

“Our...”

“Our magic, Em.” Echo said through a mouthful of toast. “She wants to see our stash.”

“Ohhhhhh.” Emori whispered, and echo had a feeling the coffee had yet to pull emori out of her daily early morning stupor.

“Tonight.”

“We will go, and bring some here.” Echo said brightly, trying to hide her uncertainty.

“Oh no. You’ll bring me with you.”

“What?!”

“If you want to stay, I want to see it all. Not just what you deign to present us with.” The snarl under her words was unmistakable.

“You want to see it.” Emori said, and by the way her eyes had cleared up, she wouldn’t be needing the coffee anymore.

“That is exactly what I want. If you want us to trust you, then you have to trust us.”

“You expect me to show you how to get to our secret stash?!” Echo asked sharply.

——

“Hold onto me.” Echo said sullenly, an irritated lilt to her voice.

Octavia gripped her forearm hard, and Emori gave her a sympathetic look as she popped them out of the room.

“YOURE A TRAVELLER?” Octavia yelled, turning on Emori as soon as they hit solid ground. “You’re a traveller and you didn’t tell us?”

“Not exactly something I share with just anyone.” It was true. It had taken Emori almost 6 months to share that little tidbit with Echo.

The room was small, four huge bookshelves covering the walls, a few filing cabinets covered in papers scattered amongst the few cushions on the floor and the little table with a desk chair.

Their secret room of magic.

They had started it after Emori revealed her secret. It was a small room in an old library in France that had been closed off to visitors. Emori had used a battery they stole from a hedge group early on to bewitch the room to be invisible to anyone passing, and they had begun filling it with their magic and spells.

They had amassed quite the collection.

Octavia seemed to agree.

“Oh my gosh how will we ever get this all back to the safe house?!”

This caught Echo off guard.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“We need to bring this back to our safe house.”

The alarm bells in Echo’s brain were at top volume.

“No.” Emori said even as Echo was opening her mouth to respond with the same.

“I’m sorry?” Octavia asked incredulously.

“We are not GIVING you our store. You can have access too it. We will share what we have. But this is ours and we will not be giving you anything.” Echo heard herself speaking but she wasn’t sure where the words came from. All she knew was something didn’t feel right, and she wasn’t about to offer up their whole collection to this group of goddess worshipers.

Octavia looked furious, and Emori clocked it before Echo did, and grabbed her arm.

“We will leave you here. There is no door to the outside, and no one knows this place even exists besides us. We will leave and you will die here.” Emori said, fire behind her eyes and fury laced in every word.

Something about the way she spoke must have convinced Octavia, so she quieted.

They thumbed through the books and Octavia found a couple very valuable spells that she stuffed into her pockets, and Emori popped them back.

——

The next few weeks went smoothly. They’d travel once a week to let octavia pick through their collection, supervised and only for a short while, and they spent their days practicing magic. The days felt full, and they should have been feeling at ease, but something was off.

Their suspicions were confirmed one day when Emori managed to overhear something she shouldn’t have.

She popped into their room, her eyes wide and full of fear.

_Emori had been wandering about the safe house, her fingers tracing the spines of the shelves and shelves of books that covered the walls on the second level, when she heard hushed voices whispering. From where she was standing, she could see between the shelves, into a small room that seemed to be hidden from the rest. What she heard was far more terrifying than anything she could have imagined. _

_"We are overdue for a sacrifice, Octavia. He will be angry with us if we do not provide one soon." Gaia's voice was angry, and forceful._

_"We haven't picked up a straggler in months, what are we supposed to do." Octavia responded, and something in the way she spoke made Emori think she might not be as in charge as she had led everyone to believe. _

_"We have picked up stragglers. Two of them, who happen to be very stingy with their magic." _

_"If we sacrifice them, we will never get access to all those spells and books." _

_"We don't need them, we could find another way to get access to their magic." _

_"How?! They keep it locked away in a secret room god knows where, and the only way they access it is with Emori's traveller power, which we will not have access to if we kill her, and we definitely won't get if we kill Echo." _

_"Well, we have to figure something out Octavia, and if you want to keep playing leader while I do all the hard work, you need to be the one to do it." _

_"Excuse me?!"_

_"You heard me. I'm the only that actually gets in contact with the gods, but you're the one who does all the showmanship. I understand, we don't want them all to know that we are using human sacrifices to keep our extra magic flowing, but if you're not going to find me someone, it won't matter if they know or not because the flow of magic will stop. We have three weeks, we need someone by the next full moon." _

_"Fine." _

_Emori heard footsteps walking towards the door, and popped over to the room to tell Echo what she had heard. _

"HUMAN. SACRIFICE?!" Echo yelled, thankful Emori had thought to put a muffling charm over the door before she recounted her story. 

"Yeah, and they're thinking of using US. We have to get out of here!"

"Where are we gonna go? We have no house, we have no way of getting any magic from the Library, we're screwed six ways to Sunday if we leave. This is the last house that would take us!"

"We can start our own house! I've said it before, we could really make something with all that magic we have."

"Who is going to join us, an ex spy who contributed to the death of a whole safe house and a magician with a hand that makes people think we're cursed."

"We could get some people, Echo. We could do it." 

Echo could sense the fear Emori was feeling, it was radiating off of her in waves. She walked over, wrapping her arms around her tiny girlfriend. 

"We will be alright, and if they try to hurt you, they're in for a big surprise." She whispered into her hair. "I won't let them touch you." 

Emori nodded, but it felt half hearted, and they curled into bed. 

Neither of them slept a wink. 

——

The next two weeks were tense. Echo made a point of sitting close to Octavia, being friendly and chatty, trying to make nice, get in the good graces, but the air in the room was always thick with some unspoken conflict. Emori, on the other hand, spent her days mingling with the group, talking with Raven, with Harper, with Lexa and Costia, as if she was making plans to stay. They days seemed long, and Echo was getting nervous.

Emori was right, they needed to leave, but when Echo pointed it out to her, that they should go, Emori assured her that she was probably right, that it was probably fine. She felt uneasy, and told Emori she wanted to leave on the day of the full moon, just in case. Emori agreed, in a way that made Echo feel like it had really been Emori's plan all along. 

The night of the full moon, they started packing their things, shoving clothes and belongings into their suitcases, when the doors to their room burst open, and they were met with Octavia, Gaia, Roma, and Lexa. 

Something in the way they looked at them made Echo's heart stop, and she knew what was happening before they spoke.

"We're sorry about this, Echo, Emori." They said, softly, before they stepped forward, grabbing them both by the arms and dragging them away. They started screaming, yelling, fighting to get away, but there was no one out in the safe house, and by the looks of it, they wouldn't be coming to their rescue. 

"We putting muffling charms on everyone's doors, don't bother." Roma said, her voice angry. 

"You do this, you'll never get to our stores. You'll never find it without us, and if you kill one of us, the other will never take you." 

"Oh, don't worry about that. We'll find a way." Octavia said, her voice smug in a way that made Echo's skin crawl. 

They dragged them into the secret room behind the bookcase, where a large stone altar was set up in the middle of the room. They tied them to the wall, and began the preparations. 

Emori leaned over. 

"They're going to take me. I know they are. You have to just let them, trust me."

"Are you JOKING?!" Echo hissed through clenched teeth, "I'm not going to let them take you, there's no way." 

"If you fight back, they will just kill us both. They've clearly decided they don't need us, you should at least get to live." 

"Absolutely not. No way in hell." Echo shook her head fervently, tears falling down her cheeks. 

Octavia came over, untying Emori's hands and carrying her to the table. 

Echo started yelling, screaming at her. She threatened and yelled, her voice going hoarse. She finally got Octavia's attention, somehow, and she took advantage. 

"If you kill her, I will kill you. I might die afterwards, but you'll die first, and you'll die bloody." She seethed, her voice ferocious. 

"Maybe so. But we will have the magic we need to continue on, and that will be enough."

Echo turned her attention to Gaia. 

"If you kill her, I won't stop until I've found a way to make sure you die, and lose favour with your stupid gods in the process." 

Gaia looked unphased. 

They laid Emori on the table, and Roma did a quick spell to knock her unconscious, and Echo grew frantic, clawing at the ties on her wrist, sobbing and screaming with all her might. 

Gaia started chanting, something ritualistic and foreign to Echo's ears, and she lifted the knife in her hand high, positioning it above Emori's heart. 

The chant ended, and as Gaia moved to plunge the knife down into Emori's chest, Lexa lept from her post on the side of the table and slit Roma's throat. 

The blood poured from her throat over the altar, and Lexa yanked Emori's limp body from the table, cutting Echo's ties, and helping her stand. Echo stood tall, confused but ready to fight. 

"Emori told me what you were up too, and at first, I didn't believe her. But then I heard Roma bragging about how she was invited into some special ritual, and that she was in your good favour, and I knew it was true. You had us all believing that a couple of sex magic orgies and food offerings kept the magic flowing, when really you were MURDERING people." Lexa spit, her voice angry. 

Octavia lashed out, her voice angry. 

"Murdering people to keep you and your friends fat and happy on the magic that WE got our hands dirty for. You should be grateful, we kept you going on this magic for almost 2 years."

"Maybe so, but this... this is wrong. It's horrific, and you won't do it again."

"Oh, and you plan to stop us? You and Echo, and her unconcious girlfriend." Gaia snapped, placing the bowl she had used to collect Roma's blood from the altar down and standing. 

"Oh... you think it's just me?" 

Echo turned, and Lexa just smiled, and pulled open the door. 

A crowd had formed outside, the entire hedge stood, and from the looks of it, they were rearing for a fight. 

"Emori has been letting your little secret slip for weeks. She overheard you, planning to kill her, and she decided she was going to make sure that didn't happen. You're not in charge anymore, either of you." Lexa spit, and Raven came up from behind, using a spell to bind Octavia and Gaia's hands. "You are not welcome here." Lexa said, her voice loud and commanding, and she waived her hand over their arms, the hedge tattoos burning as a red 'X' covered each of their stars. "You were killing magicians, just to get more magic. It's vile. You will not be welcome anywhere."

"Oh, and you trust these two? Has Echo told you about her _explosive _history?" Octavia snarled, fighting against the ropes. 

"Emori informed us, and we still think we would like to trust her, instead of you." Harper piped up from the crowd. 

The crowd followed as Lexa led them out the door into the night, letting the garage close behind them. 

The room was quiet and Lexa performed a quick spell to wake Emori from her sleep.

Emori, to her credit, didn't look surprised at all. 

"Thank you" She whispered to Lexa, smiling, and Lexa just nodded. 

Echo ran over to her.

"You did all of this without telling me?" She asked, hurt that such a huge secret had been kept from her.

"I only did it to make sure you were convincing when they decided to sacrifice us. It wouldn't have worked if you had been in on the gag." Emori whispered, reaching up to cup her face. 

Echo just nodded, before looking around and being met with 25 expectant expressions. 

Emori just smiled, again. 

"I told you we could start our own safe house. We just needed some friends." 

Echo looked in awe as Emori stood, and extended Echo a hand. 

She took it, standing with her love. 

"Together, this will be a fresh start for us all. We will open our doors to anyone who needs us, we will celebrate those who may seem dangerous or different, and we will protect one another, at any cost." Emori said, her voice commanding over the crowd.

She looked up at Echo, smiling as she did. Her eyes were soft and full of love. 

"Welcome to our new home." She said, and while it was said to everyone, Echo knew. 

It was meant for her. 


End file.
